1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus adapted to facilitate the controlled rotative movement of an object suspended by supple tether means, and more particularly to the controlled rotation of a suspended house plant about its vertical axis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In many instances it is desired to hang an object from a ceiling while also enabling the object to be rotatable in a horizontal plane. This is particularly important when suspending living plants from a ceiling. In such instances it is desirable to rotate the plant in order to successively expose all portions of the plant to light such as natural daylight coming in from a window, thereby promoting symmetrical growth of the plant.
Indoor plants rooted in suitable containers known as planters are frequently suspended from the ceiling of a room of a house by means of hook and eye arrangements adjacent the ceiling. Flexible tether means such as ropes, chains, wires, ribbons or the like depend from the hook and eye combination to support the planter. When it is desired to change the position of the planter, the hook must be disengaged from the eye and re-engaged in the opposite, 180.degree. position. This is not an easily accomplished task because the planter may be of considerable weight, and the transaction must be accomplished with the aid of a step stool, chair, ladder or other means providing sufficient elevation to reach the ceiling. Such manner of suspending a planter also provides only two positional configurations.
Several expedients have been disclosed in the art for coping with the aforementioned difficulty. For example, manually rotable devices which attach to the ceiling and support a hanging planter have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,957,242 and 3,985,327 to Holz. Such devices, although obviating the need to disconnect the planter, are difficult to rotate unless physically grasped, and therefore do not obviate the need for climbing means to reach the ceiling. If one were to merely turn the planter, causing twisting of the tether lines and consequent transmission of torque to the rotatable device of Holz, the resultant amount of rotation would be difficult to control, and damage may be caused to the plant or tether lines. A further potential shortcoming of the Holz device is that, from one occasion of rotation to the next, the user may forget in which direction the planter should be rotated for even exposure to daylight.
The apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,630 to Kalas overcomes the need to grasp a ceiling-mounted fixture by employing a clock motor to continuously rotate a planter unidirectionally. The Kalas device is however of complex construction and does not readily provide for manual override of the clock cycle to compensate for variable lighting conditions. It further necessitates the use of a hanging weight and pull-ring which may detract from the appearance of the planter, and requires that the user reach the pull-ring which may be located considerably closer to the ceiling than the planter.
An apparatus for controllably rotating a suspended planter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,124 to Faris wherein rotation is achieved when the planter is momentarily pushed upward, and then released; said apparatus being comprised of two facing toothed members, a pull rod having an associated bearing pin disposed between said toothed members, and position-restoring means acting upon said pull rod. Although the aforementioned apparatus of Faris performs effectively, improvements in the strength and ease of manufacture would provide worthwhile enhancement of the practical value of the apparatus.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide apparatus for suspending a planter from an overhead support in a manner which will permit controllable unidirectional rotation of said planter without disengagement from said apparatus and without requiring the user to reach above said planter.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus of the aforementioned nature comprised of two interactive toothed members and having a construction which affords improved structural strength and ease of fabrication.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.